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Stratford Square Mall
Stratford Square Mall is a shopping mall, opened on March 9, 1981, in Bloomingdale, Illinois, a northwestern sub of Chicago. It was the end result of a planning strategy from one of suburban Chicago’s oldest settlements. Bloomingdale, which was located on maps as far back as the 1840s, is so old that the origin of its name is a mystery. The early settlers were German farmers, and Church services were held in German in the village as late as the 1960s. The 1,300,000-square-foot (120,000 m2) mall has six current anchors: Kohl's, Burlington Coat Factory, Cinemark, Wild One Harley Davidson and Round One Entertainment. There are also three vacant anchors, last occupied by JCPenney, Carson's, Macy's and Sears. Also, there are three restaurants, Red Robin, 25 West Brewery and Nunzio's Italian Cuisine. In contrast, Stratford Square’s location is slightly maligned. Like some other struggling Chicago-area super-regional malls, such as Randhurst and Charlestowne. Stratford Square is not located directly on any expressway or interstate highway. Stratford Square is one of the two major shopping centers in Bloomingdale, the other being Bloomingdale Court. The closest major routes to Stratford Square are U.S. 20, a slow surface road with many lights, located a couple of miles away, and I-355, a major north-south thoroughfare through Chicago’s western suburbs, located about 4 miles to the east. Unfortunately, though, this retail synergy between the mall and its retail environs peaked sometime in the 1990s. Also, national trends beginning in the 90s and 2000s rallied against super-regional malls, especially those that aren’t the top of their game like Woodfield Mall, Oakbrook Center, Westfield Old Orchard, Orland Square Mall, and Fox Valley Mall. During the seemingly unending growth during the same period, too, many new strip malls and Lifestyle centers were constructed in the region, causing an overbuilding of convenience and leaving many of the older centers in and around the Stratford area to develop vacancies. Beginning in 2000s, Stratford Square and its retail corridor began to slide, punctuated by the departure of original anchor Wards in early 2001. The slide was precipitated by competition, access, and national trends, and during the balance of 2000s Stratford Square developed more vacancies and began a slide toward obsolescence. All of these processes created a perfect storm for decline at Stratford. Basically, Stratford has become a regional center in the husk of a super-regional mall. While parts of the mall are still successful and contain many popular national stores, other areas of the mall contain vacancies and much lower rent local and temporary stores. This is especially true of the Burlington Coat Factory/Carson’s wing of the mall, though it’s also visible in the Macy's wing. The center of the mall, which houses a popular food court, mega-theater, and access to anchors Sears and Kohl’s, seems to be faring better History Development and 1970s Things changed dramatically for Bloomingdale and northern DuPage County in the 1970s. The building boom around Chicagoland was in full swing, and Bloomingdale sat directly in the path of growth moving westward. As the original German pioneers established the small village core of Bloomingdale some 100 years earlier, suburban pioneers fleeing the city of Chicago began to move westward in the 1960s and 1970s. The core of the old village was very small and located along Lake Street (U.S. Highway 20) at Bloomingdale Road. Suburban Chicago began to envelop the small village, and the residential suburbs of Glendale Heights, Roselle, Addison, and Carol Stream sprang up around it. By the late 1970s, Bloomingdale wished to capitalize on all this growth and make itself a regional hub for suburban-style retail. The center of this hub was to be a super-regional mall, located on the west side of the village at the intersection of Gary Avenue and Schick Road, just north of Army Trail Road. In building Stratford Square, developers sought to fill in this retail hole in the western suburbs, between the malls in Lombard and Aurora to the south, Oakbrook and the city of Chicago to the east, and Woodfield Mall to the north. Opening and 1980s Stratford Square Mall opened on March 9, 1981, with four anchor stores which were Wieboldt's, Montgomery Ward, Marshall Field's and Carson's. It also had a four-screen movie theater. The Mall was owned by JMB Urban Development. After Stratford Square opened, many big box-anchored strip malls opened in the coming years to complement the mall, mostly along Army Trail Road and Gary Avenue. Stratford Square opened to instant success and became the anchor it was intended to be for a massive retail corridor on the west side of Bloomingdale. In 1985, MainStreet opened on the northeast corner as the fifth anchor store but became Kohl's in 1989. Taco Bell was built in the mall's west outlet area in 1987. Wieboldt's became JCPenney in 1988 shortly after The Wieboldt's Chain went bankrupt. The 1990s In 1990, Sears opened on the east corner between Kohl's and The Movie Theater, becoming the sixth anchor store. The 1990s began the start of considerable change. Nearby Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg completed a renovation and expansion, gaining the top spot in consumers’ minds for the region. First, Woodfield Mall completed an overhaul and expansion in 1996, adding many new stores and a new two-level wing featuring a Nordstrom. Following that expansion, Woodfield’s market dominance has continued to today. Woodfield’s dominance can also be attributed to a centralized location in Chicago’s northwest suburbs, located near the intersection of Interstates 90 and 290. In 1995, La-Z-Boy (now closed) was built on the west corner outside of the mall. In 1996, The Room Place opened outside the mall on the southwest corner. In 1997, Barnes & Noble opened across the street from the mall. On November 15, 1999, the mall completed a major renovation. It remained open and customers were able to continue shopping throughout the renovation. Improvements included new flooring throughout the center, a new elevator, additional escalators, enlarged restrooms including two family rooms, comfortable seating areas and an expanded retail area on the lower level. A new water display was a major focal point of center court. Entrances would be more visible with the addition of enhanced signage and lighting, and automatic doors would be available at each mall entrance. The 2000s In 2001, stores began to closes and the mall seemed to be losing interest in people. Also, Montgomery Ward closed along with the other locations, because of bankruptcy. It was replaced by a Burlington Coat Factory in 2002. Also in 2002, two Marriott hotels, Residence Inn and Courtyard were built south of the mall. In Early 2005, a New York-based company called Feldman Mall Properties acquired Stratford Square Mall, who immediately embarked on repositioning the aging center. They bought the mall for just over $93 million, and at the time the mall’s occupancy rate was 90%. Steve and Barry's also operated at the mall from about 2006 until 2009, until that chain folded. Marshall Field's was converted to Macy's in 2006, along with the other locations, such as Woodfield Mall and Oakbrook Center. Also in 2006, Feldman purchased the mall’s JCPenney anchor for $46 per square foot, leasing it to JCPenney. Cinemark Century Theater opened on July 4, 2007, which was a renovated four-screen movie theater. It now has 16 all-digital screens, a cappuccino bar, marble flooring, and stadium seating. After the movie theater renovation, a Red Robin restaurant was added next to the theater. In late October 2014, Red Robin officials stated their plan to remodel their restaurant to introduce their new "Gourmet Burgers and Brews" concept, which would feature both indoor and outdoor seating. Over the years, the mall has been plagued, as many malls, with struggling chains and vacating stores as they try to adapt to the changes in the economy and how people are changing the ways to shop and buy with the use of online options, instead of supporting tradition brick and mortar storefronts. Also rather unfortunate is the economic downturn of 2007 and beyond, which robbed Feldman of access to capital and put it in some real trouble. In 2008, Feldman attempted to dump Stratford Square, as well as several other malls in their portfolio, to a company called Inland American. In early 2009, however, the deal fell through, and Feldman ultimately kept Stratford Square as well as a mall in Ohio, until it was put into receivership. Today, Feldman still owns Stratford Square as the only property in its portfolio. Feldman also operates an outdated leasing website for Stratford Square, including a slide show featuring the completed movie theater and some of the proposed changes; however, many of the touted “high-profile” tenants have since left the mall under Feldman’s tenure, including Abercrombie and Fitch, Forever 21, Gap, Disney, and American Eagle. One slide in their presentation (fast forward a few slides, it’s a Flash page) does strike a chord with potential viability, though. It outlines the hub and spoke structure of Stratford compared with its environs, outlining the incomes, population, and traffic counts in the area. It also labels all of the strip malls and big-box anchors along Gary Avenue and Army Trail Road near the mall. Strikingly, the household income in the area is around $100,000, and the 5-mile radius population is 263,000. At 5 miles, these residents are far closer to Stratford Square than any other retail center, so the center should be able to easily capture these residents and thrive as a regional mall. The only problem with this is that Stratford is built to be a super-regional center, and draw shoppers from 10+ miles. While the 10-mile radius population is over 850,000, many of these residents are closer to Woodfield Mall, Yorktown Mall, Geneva Commons, and other options. The 2010s In October 2011, the computerized fountain in the central square next to the food court was replaced by a carousel, which is now located in the lower level of the Burlington Coat Factory wing. In early 2012, the second-floor hallway entrance of the Burlington Coat Factory was blocked off. In Early 2014, Stratford Square was acquired by StreetMac LLC. On January 15, 2014, JCPenney announced that its store would be closing as part of a plan to close 33 stores nationwide. The store closed on May 3, 2014. It remains vacant as of now. In 2015, Round One, an entertainment center that includes bowling, karaoke, arcade games, billiards, darts, and ping pong, opened on the lower level of Carson's wing. On January 4, 2017, Macy's was announced that they would also be closing as part of a plan to close 68 stores nationwide. The store closed on March 26, 2017. Later in June 2018, the mall announced that Woodman's Food Market would demolish the Macy's building and build a new store with no mall entrance. In The Fall Of 2017, Wild One Harley Davidson opened to customers. A 25 West Brewery opened the following year as part of a plan to change the tenant mix to 40% retail/60% entertainment and dining. On April 18, 2018, Carson's announced that they would be closing as well as parent company The Bon-Ton was going out of business and closing all of their locations. The store closed on August 29, 2018, along with the other locations. On August 7, 2019, Sears announced that the Stratford Square Mall location will close in October 2019. As of right now, none of the remaining anchors are original to Stratford Square - Burlington Coat Factory opened in 2002 and was originally a Montgomery Ward and the Kohl's was originally a MainStreet built in 1985. Anchors * Kohl's (76,400 sq. ft.) * Burlington Coat Factory (156,906 sq. ft.) * Cinemark * Wild One Harley Davidson * Round One Entertainment Former Anchors *Sears (opened 1990, closed 2019, 141,719 sq. ft.) * Wieboldt's (closed 1987, replaced by JCPenney in 1988) * MainStreet (converted to Kohl's in 1989) * Montgomery Ward (closed 2001, replaced by Burlington Coat Factory in 2002) * Marshall Field's (converted to Macy's in 2006) * JCPenney (closed May 3, 2014, now vacant, 144,731 sq. ft.) * Macy's (closed March 26, 2017, to be demolished for Woodman's Food Markets, 141,958 sq. ft.) * Carson's (closed August 29, 2018, now vacant, 139,564 sq. ft.) Location 152 Stratford Square, Bloomingdale, Illinois, 60108 See also * Stratford Crossing * Bloomingdale Court Gallery Videos File:MALL VIDEO Stratford Square Mall. Bloomingdale IL|Mall Tour File:The Collapse of Carson's Tour of Carson Pirie Scott at Stratford Square Mall in Bloomingdale, IL|Carson's Closing Tour File:STORE TOUR Macy's, Stratford Square Mall, Bloomingdale IL (FINAL DAYS)|Macy's Closing Tour File:Sears. Stratford Square. Bloomingdale IL|Sears Tour Photos Round One At Stratford Square Mall.jpg|Round One Entertainment Stratford Newstand.jpg|Stratford Newstand External Links Stratford Square Mall's Official Website Category:Malls in the United States Category:Malls in Illinois Category:Shopping Malls Category:Malls that opened in 1981 Category:Multi-Level Malls Category:Former Sears-anchored Malls Category:Kohl's-anchored Malls Category:Burlington-anchored Malls Category:Cinemark-anchored Malls Category:Former Wards-anchored Malls Category:Former Marshall Field's-anchored Malls Category:Former Macy's-anchored Malls Category:Former JCPenney-anchored Malls Category:Former Carson's-anchored Malls Category:Former Cineplex Odeon-anchored Properties Category:Former Wieboldt's-anchored Malls Category:Harley Davidson-anchored Properties Category:The Room Place-anchored Properties